KARACHI, Dec 11: The Sindh High Court rejected on Tuesday the bail application of an accused who had misappropriated Rs1.3 million and prize bonds worth six million rupees from a bank, and he was remanded in jail custody.

A division bench, comprising Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Justice Ataur Rahman, dismissed the bail application of Imtiaz Ali, chief cashier in Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB), an accused in a bank fraud case.

M. Ilyas Khan, counsel for the applicant, had sought bail maintaining that the accused was innocent as on September 6, 2000, the day of the alleged incident, he was sick and on the following day he had sent second key of the safe to the manager of the bank.

The counsel maintained that the offence could not have occurred without the involvement of second person and in the instant case without the help/ connivance of the bank manager. He said the accused had been attending the court on all previous dates of hearing and that his case was of further inquiry.

Barrister Khursheed Hashmi, appearing for the state, submitted that the four prosecution witnesses examined by the trial court had implicated the accused who had nothing to support his plea of sickness.

After hearing both the sides, the court rejected the bail plea and remanded the accused in jail custody while cancelling post-arrest interim bail granted to the accused earlier.

YUNUS HABIB: The same bench granted protective bail to Younus Habib, former chairman of Mehran Bank, in a case pending trial before the Special Banking court against Balochistan Wheels (Pvt) Ltd.